Recently, a team led by Dr. Yin Heng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has made a breakthrough in the field of efficient pesticide utilization. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering.
Pesticides are crucial agricultural inputs. Traditional pesticide formulations have weak adhesion to crop leaves, leading to only a small portion of the active ingredients being utilized by target organisms due to factors like rainwater runoff. This is a major reason for the overuse of pesticides. Therefore, improving pesticide utilization has become a pressing issue for sustainable agricultural and environmental development worldwide. Nano-pesticides can enhance the bioactivity, utilization efficiency, and duration of active pesticide ingredients, reduce pesticide loss, and decrease the amount and frequency of pesticide application. Nano-pesticides developed using nanomaterials and preparation techniques have been recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as the top among the "Top Ten Emerging Chemical Technologies Changing the World," marking a new direction in international green pesticide innovation.
In this study, the research team addressed the issue of pesticides being easily washed away by rainwater on hydrophobic crop leaf surfaces. They proposed the preparation of sea urchin-like carrier particles with needle-like structures on the surface based on the three-dimensional rough surface structure formed by the abundant waxy structures on hydrophobic crop leaf surfaces. By utilizing the structural interlocking effect between the needle-like structures on the particle surface and the wax crevices on the crop leaf surface, the static friction and adhesion forces were increased, thereby enhancing resistance to rainwater runoff. The team prepared polysaccharide-polyaniline sea urchin-like nano-particles capable of carrying different pesticides and validated them on rice and cucumber leaves. They found that after heavy rainfall, the sea urchin-like nano-pesticides exhibited high retention rates on plants and demonstrated superior disease control effects compared to existing commercial formulations.
This research provides theoretical guidance and practical examples for the development of novel and efficient nano-pesticide formulations.
For more information, please refer to the related paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.151901
